Donald Trump Again Insists He Saw Celebrations in New Jersey on Sept. 11
3:06 pm ET
Nick Corasaniti
nytimes.com
In Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, Donald J. Trump said that “thousands and thousands of people were cheering” while the World Trade Center towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001.Credit Eric Schultz/Associated Press
“I watched when the World Trade Center came tumbling down,” he told a crowd in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday. “And I watched in Jersey City, New Jersey, where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down.”No news reports exist of people cheering in the streets, and both police officials and the mayor of Jersey City have said that it did not happen. An Internet rumor about people cheering in the streets, which said it was in Paterson, not Jersey City, has been denied numerous times by city and police officials.
But when pressed on Sunday by George Stephanopoulos in an interview, Mr. Trump emphatically stuck to his story.
“It did happen, I saw it,” Mr. Trump said. “It was on television. I saw it.”
When reminded that police said it didn’t happen, Mr. Trump again insisted that he saw it.
“I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down — as those buildings came down. And that tells you something,” he said. “It was well covered at the time, George.”
In New Hampshire on Sunday, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said he had no recollection of state residents celebrating the terror attacks in 2001.
“I think if it had happened, I would remember it,” Mr. Christie said.
Also on Sunday, Mr. Trump reiterated many of his emphatic, if controversial, positions in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris. He said he would not unequivocally rule out a database on all Muslims and that he wants a database of refugees and surveillance of certain mosques.
He also said that he would bring back interrogation techniques like waterboarding.
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